Rising Sun
by Cubaser
Summary: We all know that Princess was left behind as the cats journeyed on to the Great Lake. But what we don't know is her ambition and what love can make a cat - in this case, Princess - do.


**One day, I was looking at Firestar's lineage and I saw Princess, all alone on the tree. I thought that if her kin could be the leader of a mega-evil Clan, the leader of ThunderClan, and numerous warriors...Why couldn't she have a little adventure of her own? So, yeah. I'm going to write this as well as Night's sequel. :3 And now we join Princess...  


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_I watch, frozen, with horrified eyes as the monsters move towards my beloved brother and son's home. They tear down the forest - I can hear the tree's screams as they're knocked to the ground, now dead and lifeless. More and more monsters swarm, and they override the forest. I can't see any cats in the barren wasteland they're creating - just endless stumps of the dead and gone trees, and the miserable remains of the camp - my brother's camp._

_Suddenly, I see Firestar. He has a kit dangling in his mouth - Cloudkit! _My _kit! He's trying to escape a monster with enormous, rolling paws...He's running...I can hear Cloudkit mewling for me, for his mother...The monster's too fast..._

Princess woke up with a start, the echoes of a piercing scream bouncing off the walls. The sound finally receded, and Princess realized with a start that her jaws were open; the screech had been her own. She closed her mouth with a snap and stared longingly out the window of her kitty door. She could still see the stumps of the trees and the monsters that were dripped black goo on the floor in the line of a straight path - they were making a new Thunderpath for the horrible monsters that had almost killed her Cloudkit - Cloudtail now. Firestar, too.

Sighing, she stood and stretched out her legs. She'd go out for a walk, she decided - maybe it'd make her feel...better. She pushed her way out of the small square door and breathed in the scent of pine. The wind ruffled her fur, but she didn't mind. She leapt to the top of the fence - not without some difficulty, however. Her rotund belly made it difficult. But she did, and she sat atop the fence like she always had - before the destruction.

After the trees fell and all she saw were stumps, Princess had become overcome with misery and sadness. She'd given up her kit, her Cloudkit, so that he would be eaten by enormous monsters. The last she'd seen of Firestar was when he warned her to keep away from any strange cats, seasons ago. He'd shown such worry for her - but now he had gone.

Finally, however, Princess had wandered out of her house, still grief-stricken - and then the elders came. She remembered it as clearly as if it were yesterday, instead of just a few moons -

_I padded out of my twolegs' house, still miserable over the loss of my beautiful kit and my brave, brave brother. However, my eyes surprised me - in my front lawn, there was a cat._

_She was frail and sickly looking, her pale cream tabby fur sunken in so that I could see her ribs. With a pang, I remembered the famine that my brother and kit suffered through and wondered if this cat was suffering the same._

_She looked right at me, and I was surprised to see that her amber eyes were hollow with hunger and illness - and grief._

_"Hello?" I asked cautiously._

_"You," the old elder said, "You look like young...Cloudtail."_

_A shock of excitement ripped through my chest. This old cat knew my son, Cloudtail! Maybe she knew if...If..._

_"Cloudtail?!" I asked excitedly. "You know Cloudtail?"_

_I didn't think the elder heard me. "Snowkit...And Lionheart...My beautiful kits, never to see their new home..."_

_New home? Did that mean..._

_"ThunderClan went somewhere else?" I asked excitedly._

_The elder looked at me as though she was just beginning to really see me. "Yes," she rasped. "Somewhere far, far away...But I couldn't make it. Not me...Not me, the old, old elder. Not Frostfur, or Loudbelly...Shadepelt..."_

_I suddenly realized that the old cat was shivering. "Come inside, with me!" I exclaimed._

_"No!" she said sharply. "I'm not a...kittypet. But it's my time to go to StarClan, soon. I hope...they haven't moved on without me."_

_I looked at the frail elder and saw what used to be a strong warrior. "Wait here!" I said, and pelted inside._

_Quickly, - the twolegs were still asleep - I looked up at the remains of freshkill on the table. The twolegs covered it up last night, but maybe I could get at it. I leapt onto the table with the aid of a chair and sliced open the clear cover with a claw. I broke off a piece of the smooth, white meat and raced back outside._

_I lay the bit at the elder's feet. "Eat this," I said._

_She did, slowly and cautiously at first, but she finally gulped it down in ravenous swallows. "Thank you...I am Speckletail. Who are you?"_

_"I'm Princess," I said. "Do you know where ThunderClan went? And if...if Cloudtail and Firestar are alive?"_

_Speckletail let out a rasping laugh. "A million monsters couldn't kill Cloudtail," she said. "And Firestar is just the same - they're warriors, through and through. They went...past Highstones. To the mountains beyond. Past that..." She coughed. "Somewhere wonderful. I wish I were...young again. But soon, I'll be with Frostfur in StarClan...I hope they haven't moved on...without me."_

Speckletail, despite Princess's help and food, died a few days later. Princess had sadly buried her next to one of the few pine trees still standing. But even though Speckletail was gone now, Princess had gotten one thing from meeting her -

Hope.


End file.
